


“Nice Forearms and Nicer Staff!”: Gender, Sexuality, and Death in Just Roll With It

by braadvengolor



Series: Just Roll With It Essays [2]
Category: Just Roll With It (Podcast)
Genre: Essays, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:14:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24562189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/braadvengolor/pseuds/braadvengolor
Summary: Using gay, lesbian, and queer theory, feminist theory, and a dash of psychoanalytic theory in order to examine Just Roll With It.*THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOTH ARC 1 & ARC 2*_____It’s ya boy back again with another essay.
Series: Just Roll With It Essays [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775350
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34





	“Nice Forearms and Nicer Staff!”: Gender, Sexuality, and Death in Just Roll With It

**Author's Note:**

> I am so sorry about how ao3 formats this. It’s just a gigantic wall of text. I wish I could double space it somehow.

Just Roll With It is a real-play Dungeons and Dragons podcast following the adventures and misadventures of Br’aad and Sylnan Vengolor, Taxi, Velrisa Greyrock, and Mountain Stormbraid. Just Roll With It, as a whole, has a very interesting relationship with gender and sexuality. There are many examples of gay coding in the podcast, and the character’s relationships with gender leave a lot to be questioned. The relationship that the podcast has with women and with female characters can be a difficult landscape to navigate, and including the podcast’s relationship with death alongside its relationship to gender generates some questions. 

Gay coding is defined as a character which is implicitly homosexual, and whose homosexuality comes through in the narrative through signs and symbols as opposed to being explicitly stated (Tyson 340). Within Just Roll With It, one character in particular was heavily gay coded prior to confirmation that he is, in fact, gay. Br’aad Vengolor has many homoerotic and in other ways heavily gay-coded interactions with men. In order to introduce himself to Taxi, a man, he says “nice forearms and nicer staff” (23:08; S1 Ep. 1). Even to a person who is not actively searching for homoerotic subtext, these words and this phrasing really stands out. Complimenting another man on his musculature is not inherently homoerotic, although as an introduction it does certainly read that way. The addition of the “and nicer staff” is what really sets in stone the homoerotic nature of this comment. Taxi was carrying a staff at the time Br’aad complimented him on his staff, but a staff carries a certain phallic connotation. It is a long, wooden pole and out of everything on Taxi’s person, Br’aad has elected to bring specific attention to it. It is already homoerotic for a man to immediately compliment another man without having spoken so much as a word to him, but it is a completely other thing to then not-so subtly bring attention to his penis. In addition to this, Br’aad is an excellent example of Camp. Camp is an important concept in gay theory, and one does not have to be gay to execute it well. In fact the man who plays him, Charles Dalgleish, is presumably heterosexual and executes the concept excellently. However, whether or not he is aware of or is intentionally playing into Camp is unknown. Br’aad is often theatrical, over-the-top, and everything about him is deliberate and exaggerated. The voice that Dalgleish chooses to use for Br’aad is cartoonish and distinctly fantastical. In addition, it is hard to argue that Br’aad/Br’aad’s character could by any stretch of the imagination be described as “reverent”. All of these traits point directly towards Camp. (Tyson 331). Br’aad’s personality is loud and ostentatious, and he often does things explicitly for dramatic effect or coolness factor, even if these actions are things that is certainly aware are detrimental or could otherwise end disastrously. For example, during a fight taking place on an airship, Br’aad chose to ride a flying sword like a skateboard and ride it down towards foes on the side of the ship, despite the fact that this could easily end with him plummeting to his death and that better means were easily accessible to him (S2 Ep. 24). Br’aad is described several times both in and out of character as “flamboyant”, which is a word heavily associated with gay men and with the concept of Camp as well. “Flamboyant” is certainly not an inaccurate description of Br’aad. Br’aad is nothing if not showy. In fact, he is described as walking and carrying himself in the same way as a posh woman (12:42; S2 Ep. 7). The way a posh woman would carry herself would be in an extremely feminine manner, a very dainty and delicate manner. These mannerisms are not associated frequently with heterosexual men, and feminine characteristics are strongly associated with gay men. As well as these factors, Br’aad is gay coded in another way— his father’s disapproval (11:47; S1 Ep. 10.5). On its own, this does not necessarily mean that a character is gay. However, combined with the other factors, it does add to his gay coding. His father states his disapproval of Br’aad being a warlock (a person who gains magical power through a contract with a more powerful being referred to as a “patron”; in Br’aad’s case a god of sorts). At a surface level, it seems fairly reasonable that he could hate him for this and it could be taken at face value. Br’aad’s father simply disapproves of his son’s life choices. However, it is later revealed in the plot that Br’aad’s father is himself a warlock, and he has absolutely no issue with his own status as a warlock. It can therefore be assumed that Br’aad’s father’s issue with Br’aad is not the fact that he is a warlock, and therefore must be something else. Br’aad’s father is not present in his life, and therefore cannot know all that much about him. However, he does keep tabs on Br’aad and Sylnan and it is therefore entirely probable that he would know that Br’aad is gay and by extension would therefore be in a position to knowingly hate him for it. Even if one were to assume that he is not keeping close enough tabs on Br’aad to be consciously aware that he is gay, it is still possible that he may nevertheless subconsciously hate Br’aad for his gayness. Much of Br’aad’s gay coding comes from his relationship with gender expression. 

Gender plays a big role behind the scenes in Just Roll With It, particularly in regards to the way that the podcast treats its female characters. One question that feminist critics ask is in what ways does a work enforce or undermine the patriarchy and patriarchal ideology (Tyson 119). There are not many female characters in Just Roll With It, which makes this question simultaneously easier and harder to answer. It is easier to answer in the way that one could say that it enforces the patriarchy by keeping its focus on men and male characters, however this is not entirely true. It is not as simple as saying that Just Roll With It achieves one or the other. Just as all things are, Just Roll With It is a work with complicated ideology and no straightforward answers. Paired with the fact that by its very nature, Just Roll With It stems from multiple authors, each with their own thoughts and ideologies, it becomes necessary to dive deeper than the surface level and to closer examine the female characters within the podcast. The female character with the most screen time and the most important role is Velrisa Greyrock, one of the party members. She is a much more involved character, being a member of the party, and therefore she is able to have more screen time and is able to be developed more fully. She has her own goals and motivations, and acts in her own interests, she also is willing to call out the behavior of men around her if she sees that it conflicts with her own morals. Velrisa is not a submissive character by any stretch of the imagination. She is very willing to fight for herself. She is not only a strong female character in that she is well developed and that she has clear motivations, personality traits, and ambitions, but she is also physically very strong. Velrisa has over and over again proven her battle prowess. She is extremely competent in combat situations, and is not afraid to outshine her male counterparts. An example of this is at the very end of the first arc in the battle against recurring antagonist Brendan, Velrisa deals a significant amount of damage (80 damage, to be precise) against Brendan (68:25; S1 Ep. 26). At her level, this is an incredible amount of damage. “Strong female character” does not just mean “female character who is physically strong”. A “strong female character” is generally regarded as a female character that is well-written, and which has depth and is not simply a prop for other characters. Velrisa certainly meets this metric. It is very clear that she is a character with an in-depth backstory and with complicated motivations and feelings. Velrisa is a very real character, she makes poor heat-of-the-moment decisions, and can be selfish on occasion. Velrisa’s most significant heat-of-the-moment choice is when battling a tree which had its life force entangled with that of a young girl, Velrisa chose to kill the child in order to take the foe down (59:02; S2 Ep. 16). It was possible to avoid this, to attempt to save the child. In that moment, Velrisa had to quickly weigh her morality against her evaluation of if the party could win this fight. This shows a depth to her character. Overall, Velrisa is a very lawful and considerate person. In this moment, however, Velrisa sacrificed her own values in order to ensure the party’s success. Velrisa has her own motivations and her own goals, not everything that she does lines up with the party and what the party wants. Conflicting the character of Velrisa is Katherine. Katherine is Sylnan’s late girlfriend who after her death ascended to the rank of a minor goddess. When she is introduced, it is because Sylnan has died and she is holding his soul within a pocket dimension in order to allow him to be revived (S1 Ep. 19). Her godly powers are used in this scenario to assist a man, and not to further her own goals, of which she does not appear to have any. To be fair, she is dead, and it is hard to imagine what kind of goals a person who has died and has suddenly discovered that they have ascended to the rank of a minor goddess would have apart from exploring the extent of her abilities. She tests her abilities out on the soul of Sylnan while he is present in her pocket dimension. Before he leaves, she asks that he pray to her, and explains that her continued power is reliant on people’s belief in her. Katherine is entirely dependent on men. Without Sylnan, she would quite literally lose her entire purpose and everything she has. Yes, Katherine is a non-player-character (NPC) and therefore she is not able to have as much screen time and development as Velrisa. However, another female NPC does not have this same issue. Oriana, girlfriend of Taxi, does have her own motivations and her own goals. She is not reliant on Taxi, and is shown making her own independent decisions and existing in somewhat of a leadership role in the first arc. Oriana is very independent from Taxi, she and Taxi are on very even footing. She doesn’t rely on Taxi for anything, and she has her own life outside of him. The contrast between Katherine and Oriana is extreme. While it feels almost like Katherine sits around in her pocket dimension waiting for Sylnan to do something, Oriana is out in the world achieving her own goals. To answer the question of how Just Roll With It enforces or undermines patriarchal ideals, I would say that the independence and depth of character of women like Velrisa and Oriana work to undermine patriarchal ideals, while Katherines dependence on Sylnan for her very existence works to further them. In fact, Katherine’s death feels almost as though it was orchestrated only to help Sylnan and to further his goals. 

Overall, Just Roll With It seems to be obsessed with death. As a whole, humanity is obsessed with death (Tyson 22), so it makes sense that Just Roll With It would be no exception to this rule. However, in the podcast the conception of gender appears to be very much interwoven with this obsession with death. Many female figures within the lives of the party members are dead. A disproportionate amount of female figures are dead as opposed to male ones. Katherine, a very important figure in Sylnan’s life is dead, Sylnan and Br’aad’s mother is dead, and Mountain’s wife and presumably his mother are also dead. The other party members either have no dead family or romantic partners, or it is unclear whether they do or do not. Between these three characters, there are only two dead men in their families, being Sylnan and Br’aad’s father and Mountain’s father. This may not seem all that disproportionate from a numbers standpoint, but it is important to keep in mind that only one of these men was dead prior to the start of the podcast, and all of these women were. There are exactly twice as many dead women in these men’s lives than there are dead men and considering the imbalance of gender present in NPCs, it becomes very apparent that gender is a factor when it comes to death. In fact, the most prominent female character Velrisa’s entire life and her greatest motivations are related to death. Velrisa is a grave cleric, meaning that she helps ghosts pass on into the afterlife as well as vanquishing undead wherever she may encounter them. Velrisa is the only party member who is entrenched in death like this as well as being the only woman. Gender is not only connected to death in terms of gender identity but as well in terms of gender expression. Br’aad, the most gender non-conforming character in the podcast had his brother’s death orchestrated by his then-patron, Ob’nockshai (31:35; S2 Ep. 10). His brother’s death was orchestrated to add intrigue to his character, to make him interesting by making him tragic. Is it coincidence that the queerest character in the party was punished by the narrative in this way? Br’aad’s then-patron saw Br’aad as his protagonist, his plaything. It is entirely possible that either consciously or subconsciously his patron disliked Br’aad’s behavior or his gender non-conformity and elected to kill two birds with one stone, to simultaneously add intrigue to his protagonist and to punish him for not behaving in the way he wanted him to. 

The relationship between gender and sexuality and Just Roll With It is certainly a tumultuous one. Between the blatant gay coding of Br’aad Vengolor, the way that the podcast handles patriarchy and patriarchal ideals in regards to its female characters, and the way that death and gender interact, it paints an interesting picture of the narrative and character choices made by both the party members and the dungeon master. By analyzing the queer coding present in this podcast, one can get a better idea of what, exactly constitutes queer coding. It can cause queer coding in not only the works of others but one’s own work to become more apparent. Through exploring patriarchy in fiction, one can more easily spot patriarchy and patriarchal ideals in real life, and one can more easily realize the patriarchal ideals that run deep in fiction. Death disproportionately affects female, queer, and gender non-conforming characters in fiction, not only in terms of these characters dying more often but in that these characters more frequently have those around them die. 

Bibliography  
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide. 2nd ed., Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2006.  
Just Roll With It. Just Roll With it, Spotify, June 17 2018–present, https://open.spotify.com/show/5fB5yYxog6PhYsrWHDi8uY?si=xfe9VQ7SSLmTzhtDPKfpOA

**Author's Note:**

> I received an A on this paper! :)


End file.
